Governor Udom Emmanuel has stated that his vision for the Akwa United Football Club, is to conquer Africa at the Continental football level, and has promised to give the team the necessary support to feature at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Champions League.
The Governor says the team has not only brought laurels to the state, but has been a good investment yielding returns.
Speaking to Government House Correspondents after the match, Governor Emmanuel expressed his appreciation to God for granting the team victory, commending Akwa United management and players for making the state proud.
He lauded the team spirit exhibited by players and commended Akwa Ibom people for believing and supporting them to victory.
“I told them that first, you must make an investment, secondly, you must make a good investment, thirdly, you must ensure good returns.
“Someone can make an investment but it’s not a good investment, someone can make a good investment but it can’t yield good return, so if you are a good investor, your investment must be a good investment and must also yield returns. I think the entire State has made a good investment and the investment is yielding good return.
“Today they have conquered Nigeria, we are looking forward to conquering Africa and I will give them the maximum support to make sure they conquer Africa. Once we conquer Africa, we’ll go to World Club tournament then we will conquer the World that’s our vision”, the governor assured.
The governor who described football as a sub-sector of economic development, thanked Nigeria Professional Football League NPFL and Nigeria Football Federation NFF for managing the sports sector in the country and re-echoed his commitment towards sport development in the state, noting that youths will be empowered through sports which has been one of the target of his Completion Agenda.
“It doesn’t only begin and end in football, if you look at when we came in our first term, when we started with our 5- points agenda, you could see under the youth development sub theme we expressed a lot of desire to do more.
“This is what actually motivated us to set up sports centers and youth sports competitions in the state to train our people. The first junior Commonwealth gold medalist, Aniekeme is from Akwa Ibom he came out of our summer sports championship.
“Today I will be surprised if the Super Eagles do not take this team to represent Nigeria, it means they don’t want to win a trophy, the whole team can represent Nigeria in any tournament, they would have been at Olympics and I am sure they would have gotten a gold medal today”.
Governor Udom Emmanuel congratulated Akwa United Football Club for their historic and emphatic 5-2 victory over Mountain of Fire Ministries (MFM) FC to be crowned Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) champions for the first time in 25 years.
Governor Udom Emmanuel who watched Akwa United live at the Nest of Champions on Sunday, amidst jubilating spectators, singing and hailing their teams, acknowledged God’s mercies upon the team to emerge league leaders after a scintillating performance at home.
“I want to thank all Akwa Ibomites both at home and in the diaspora, for their support and prayers. Today Akwa Ibomites wherever you are, I am proud of you and I am also proud to be an Akwa Ibomite. I know you have said that never in history has a team from this entire region risen to win two FA cups, and a league trophy by one governor, how you can explain that? You know one thing sums it all, only God”.